![America America](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125845869/531774944.jpg)
Carmen Dragon was an American conductor, composer, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television. He was educated in Antioch, California, and left following graduation from the old Riverview High School. America the Beautiful Beginning in 2010, the U.S. Mint began striking a series of over 60 different quarter designs to commemorate our National Parks. Five different designs will be issued each year, until the program is complete.
Dragon in 1953. | |
Born | July 28, 1914 |
---|---|
Died | March 28, 1984 (aged 69) Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
Occupation | Conductor, composer, and arranger |
Carmen Dragon (July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984) was an American conductor, composer, and arranger who in addition to live performances and recording, worked in radio, film, and television.
Early years[edit]
Dragon was born in Antioch, California, the son of Rose and Frank Dragon, who were Italian immigrants.[1][2][3] He attended Antioch High School and, while a student there, composed a song for the school. Forward, Antioch! was performed between acts of a school play on February 28, 1930. (A newspaper article erroneously identified the composer as 'a high school girl, Carmen Dragon.')[4]
Film[edit]
He was very active in pops music conducting and composed scores for several films, including At Gunpoint (1955), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night into Morning (1951), and Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye (1950).
With Morris Stoloff, he shared the 1944 Oscar for the popular Gene Kelly/Rita Hayworth musical Cover Girl, which featured songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin.[5]
He made a popular orchestral arrangement of 'America the Beautiful' and also re-arranged it for symphonic band. In his obituary published March 29, 1984, the New York Times noted: 'In 1964 he won an Emmy for producing the Glendale Symphony Orchestra Christmas Special on NBC.'Dragon appeared as himself in the 1979 film The In-Laws as the conductor of the fictitious Paramus Philharmonic Orchestra.
Radio[edit]
Dragon conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and they performed on The Standard School Broadcast, broadcast on NBC radio in the western U.S. for elementary schools from 1928 through the 1970s.[6] The show was sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California (now the Chevron Corporation), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s.
In the summer of 1947, Dragon and Frances Langford had a program on NBC. Langford sang, accompanied by Dragon and his 25-piece orchestra. The show began June 5 and ran for 13 weeks as a summer replacement for George Burns and Gracie Allen's program.[7]
Dragon also hosted a regular classical music radio show broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network well into the 1980s.[citation needed]
Dragon's concert band arrangement of America the Beautiful is played by bands across the country in concerts of patriotic music.
Personal appearances[edit]
By May 1935, Dragon had his own orchestra. A Santa Cruz, California, newspaper reported about the San Jose State freshman dance, 'The dancers will travel over the world with the orchestra of Carmen Dragon furnishing the appropriate music of each locality.'[8] A couple of months later, a Fresno, California, newspaper contained an advertisement promoting 'Carmen Dragon, Ace Stanford Band, The Sensation of the Coast.'[9]
Recording[edit]
Dragon made a series of popular light classical albums for Capitol Records during the 1950s with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Some of these recordings have been reissued on compact disc.
Recognition[edit]
Dragon has a star in the Radio section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Located at 6104 Hollywood Boulevard, it was dedicated September 7, 1989.[10] An elementary school is named after the composer in Antioch, California.
Personal life[edit]
Dragon’s wife, Eloise (Rawitzer), sang on his Maxwell House series and Starlight Concert.[1][11]
Death[edit]
Carmen Dragon died of cancer, aged 69, in a Santa Monica, California hospital, on March 28, 1984.[12]
Children[edit]
- Son, Daryl Dragon (August 27, 1942 - January 2, 2019) of the 1970s pop music duo Captain & Tennille
- Daughter, Carmen E. Dragon (January 17, 1948 - July 11, 2010), classical harpist
- Son, Dennis Dragon (1947-2017), drummer for the surf band Surf Punks; also appeared in some live concerts with the Byrds shortly before they disbanded in 1973, also produced much of Captain & Tennille's music.[13][14]
- Daughter, Kathryn Dragon Henn (November 8, 1951 - April, 2012), was the manager of her father's Orchestral Pops Rental Library
- Son, Douglas - a musician and singer
References[edit]
- ^ abDeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-2834-2. P. 81.
- ^https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XCX5-G6G
- ^http://alumni.umassband.com/america-the-beautiful-the-story-behind-the-band-classic/
- ^'Antioch Students Give Play Tonight'. California, Oakland. Oakland Tribune. February 28, 1930. p. 52.
- ^'Composer-conductor Carmen Dragon dies'. The Tuscaloosa News. Retrieved November 19, 2013.
- ^The Standard School Broadcast website
- ^'Langford-Dragon In Burns-Allen Spot'. Connecticut, Naugatuck. Naugatuck Daily Times. May 24, 1947. p. 1. Retrieved March 31, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^'Glenys Bodkin Is Named Chairman of S. J. Dance Committee'. California, Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz Evening News. May 10, 1935. p. 3. Retrieved March 31, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^'(Sweet's Rainbow advertisement)'. California, Fresno. The Fresno Bee The Republican. July 26, 1935. p. 17. Retrieved March 31, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^'Carmen Dragon'. Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ^[1]
- ^Obituary, nytimes.com, March 29, 1984.
- ^'About Dennis Dragon'. dennisdragon.com. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ^'Dennis Dragon'. allmusic.com. AllMedia Network. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
External links[edit]
- Carmen Dragon on IMDb
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carmen_Dragon&oldid=927212725'
On this July 1, 2014, America stands divided politically after some contentious Supreme Court business, and yet we are united in our support of Team USA at the World Cup against Belgium this afternoon. America is also united in looking forward to a nice, long, Fourth of July weekend coming up. I can think of no better time to explore our unofficial national hymn, America the Beautiful.
The hymn really has two authors. Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) wrote the words, inspired by a visit to Pikes Peak in Colorado and other western vistas. She was a distinguished professor of English at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who agitated for American involvement in the League of Nations and lived with a female partner for 25 years. Her poem, originally entitled simply America, was published on July 4th, 1895. Samuel Augustus Ward (1847-1903) wrote the tune, which he called Materna, in 1882. He was a church organist in New Jersey and the last descendent in a long line of Samuel Wards that started with a Rhode Island governor and Continental Congress delegate. Ward and Bates would never meet. Their works were not combined until a 1910 publication, 7 years after Ward’s death, presented them in the form that is still familiar today.
There are few things more American than Mormons, so here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with a very straight-ahead version of the hymn:
Gospel is certainly among the most uniquely American of musical genres. Here is one of America’s greats, Ray Charles (who, it should be noted, could never behold the beauty of America himself) in 1972 with a truly heartfelt rendition. Note that he starts with the third verse (see below), which seems to contain a call for putting country before self:
Of the many arrangements of America the Beautiful that exist for band, Carmen Dragon‘s is by far the most epic. Dragon (1914-1984) was a conductor, composer, and arranger whose work included numerous film scores, a long engagement with the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and a long-running classical music radio show on the Armed Forces Network. He unleashes the full color palate of the band and pushes the harmonic language as far as is possible in a traditional tune. Here is the band original:
And here is his arrangement as performed by the US Navy Band, featuring the Sea Chanters Chorus:
Bates’s poem (presented here in its 1913 revision) captures the glory of the American landscape while calling for goodness, unity, and brotherhood from its people.
- O beautiful for spacious skies,
- For amber waves of grain,
- For purple mountain majesties
- Above the fruited plain!
- America! America!
- God shed his grace on thee
- And crown thy good with brotherhood
- From sea to shining sea!
- O beautiful for pilgrim feet
- Whose stern impassioned stress
- A thoroughfare of freedom beat
- Across the wilderness!
- America! America!
- God mend thine every flaw,
- Confirm thy soul in self-control,
- Thy liberty in law!
- O beautiful for heroes proved
- In liberating strife.
- Who more than self their country loved
- And mercy more than life!
- America! America!
- May God thy gold refine
- Till all success be nobleness
- And every gain divine!
- O beautiful for patriot dream
- That sees beyond the years
- Thine alabaster cities gleam
- Undimmed by human tears!
- America! America!
- God shed his grace on thee
- And crown thy good with brotherhood
- From sea to shining sea!